The present invention relates to a disc player for reproducing a disc such as a CD, CD-ROM, etc., or for recording information on a DRAW disc (referred to merely as a disc player hereinafter).
In some disc players, a pickup for reproducing or recording information with respect to a disc is arranged to be displaced in a radial direction of the disc, for example, by a linear motor. In the above arrangement, if an urging force is applied to the pickup following displacement or the like of the disc player, the pickup is easily displaced so as to be subjected to impact forces, thus resulting in damages to precision optical components provided therein.
Therefore, in order to prevent unnecessary displacement of the pickup by fixing said pickup except for a period when a power source is turned on, there has conventionally been proposed, e.g. in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 62-51566, a disc reproducing apparatus which is so arranged that, with a first rack disposed at one side of a pickup, a second rack urged to be engaged with said first rack in a stroke of displacement of said pickup is provided, and function of an operating member of a power source for actuating a power switch is adapted to be transmitted to said second rack through a mechanical transmission mechanism, so that, by the operation for turning on the power switch, the engagement between said second rack and first rack is released, while through operation for turning off the power source, said second rack is engaged with said first rack.
In the above conventional arrangement, however a complicated mechanical transmission mechanism is required for transmitting the function of the operating member for actuating the power switch to the second rack, thus resulting in a cost increase and undesirable complication of the arrangement on the whole.